Prince's 'Purple Rain' begins Fox film fest on May 14

The Fox Theatre’s 2016 Summer Film Festival will open a month earlier this year with a movie that is both timely and newsworthy: Prince’s Purple Rain.

The 1984 movie screens at 7:30 p.m. May 14, with tickets on sale now ($18.50 in advance, $20 day of show) HERE, at 855.285.8499 or in person at the Fox ticket office at the theater on Peachtree Street in Midtown. The date, incidently, comes one month after the musician’s final concert at the Fox Theatre. The pop/rock/funk legend died April 21 at age 57.

Purple Rain (111 mins) is loosely based on Prince’s own life. It follows a young musician named the Kid, who’s tormented by an abusive situation at home and must contend with a rival singer, a burgeoning romance and his own dissatisfied band as his star begins to rise.

Some of what you might not know about Purple Rain:

An early, simpler, version of the unpronounceable symbol to which Prince changed his name while battling Warner Bros. Records is painted on the gas tank of the Kid’s motorcycle.

Prince protégé Vanity was supposed to be the Kid’s love interest. When she left before shooting, the girl group known as Vanity 6 became Apollonia 6.

When the Kid’s father is playing piano, the music is actually played by Prince.

Clarence Williams III, Olga Kartalos and Apollonia Kotero are the only professional actors in the cast.

The rest of the 2016 Coca-Cola Fox Summer Film Festival will be announced soon and is expected to include a 30th anniversary screening of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the Audrey Hepburn classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Saturday Morning Cartoons and a sing-along to Disney’s The Little Mermaid.